# Recraft API vs Stability AI Image API

> Recraft API has a score of 53 (D) against Stability AI Image API's 42.6 (E). Both do image generate. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 40 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/recraft-vs-stability-ai-image.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/recraft-vs-stability-ai-image.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-04

Recraft API has a score of 53 (D) against Stability AI Image API's 42.6 (E). Both do image generate. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 40 points.

- Recraft API: grade D, 53/100, rank #338 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/recraft.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/recraft.json
- Stability AI Image API: grade E, 42.6/100, rank #414 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/stability-ai-image.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/stability-ai-image.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Recraft API for reliability (+10), schema & documentation (+25), agent ergonomics (+14), maintenance & community (+40).

Pick Stability AI Image API for payments & pricing (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Recraft API | Stability AI Image API | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 60 | Recraft API +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 39 | Recraft API +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 48 | Recraft API +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Stability AI Image API +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 48 | 8 | Recraft API +40 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 63 | Stability AI Image API +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **53 · D** | **42.6 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Recraft API | Stability AI Image API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Model API | Model API |
| Vendor | Recraft | Stability AI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1` | `https://api.stability.ai/v2beta` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | none |
| Tools exposed | 9 | none |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | none | none |
| Popularity | none | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Recraft API.** Native SVG vector generation, not traced raster. No changelog and no error reference.

**Stability AI Image API.** Fixed price per call for every endpoint, published in credits. No new image model we could date since SD 3.5 Flash in July 2025.

## Before you call either

### Recraft API

1. Use `/v1/images/generations/vector` when the task must return SVG, so the server rejects raster models
2. Ask for `b64_json` or `multipart` if you can't fetch the URL within a day
3. Name `recraftv4_1_flash` for drafts at $0.007. The default `recraftv4_1` costs $0.035
4. Stay under 100 images a minute and 5 requests a second per user
5. Point the OpenAI SDK at `https://external.api.recraft.ai/v1`, but expect some parameters to be ignored

### Stability AI Image API

1. Send `accept: image/*` to get bytes back, or `application/json` for base64
2. Stay under 150 requests every 10 seconds. A 429 locks you out for 60 seconds
3. Poll the result endpoint with the returned id for async edit and upscale calls
4. Use Stable Image Core or SD 3.5 Flash for drafts, Ultra for finals
5. Send multipart form data, not JSON

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